A Book of the Seasons, Signs of the Spring: Bright Blue Water

 

No mortal is alert enough to be present at the first dawn of the spring. 

Henry Thoreau, March 17, 1857

That dark-eyed water

especially when I see it at right angles

with the direction of the sun

is it not the first sign of spring?

February 12, 1860

February 12. That dark-eyed water, especially when I see it at right angles with the direction of the sun, is it not the first sign of spring? . . .when I see the water exposed in midwinter, it is as if I saw a skunk or even a striped squirrel out. It is as if the woodchuck unrolled himself and snuffed the air to see if it were warm enough to be trusted. 

It excites me 

to see early in the spring 

that black artery 

leaping once more through the snow-clad town. February 12, 1860

February 20. The northerly wind blows me along, and when I get to the cut I hear it roaring in the woods, all reminding me of March, March.  The sides of the cut are all bare of snow, and the sand foliage is dried up. It is decided March weather, and I see from my window 

the bright-blue water 

here and there between the ice 

and on the meadow.

 February 20, 1855

February 23.   I have seen signs of the spring.  February 23, 1857

February 25.   Colder, and frozen ground; strong wind, northwest . . . The fields of open water amid the thin ice of the meadows are the spectacle to-day. They are especially dark blue when I look southwest. Has it anything to do with the direction of the wind? It is pleasant to see high dark-blue waves half a mile off running incessantly along the edge of white ice. There the motion of the blue liquid is the most distinct. As 

the waves rise and fall 

they seem to run swiftly along 

the edge of the ice.  

 February 25. 1860

 February 27.   The sudden apparition of this dark-blue water on the surface of the earth is exciting. I must now walk where I can see the most water, as to the most living part of nature. This is 

the blood of the earth

and we see its blue arteries 

pulsing with new life.

 February 27, 1860

March 2.  The great phenomenon these days is the sparkling blue water, -- a richer blue than the sky ever is. The flooded meadows are ripple lakes on a large scale  . . . 

It is more dashing, 

rippling, sparkling, living, this 

windy but clear day; 

never smooth, but ever varying in its degree of motion and depth of blue as the wind is more or less strong, rising and falling. All along the shore next us is a strip a few feet wide of very light and smooth sky-blue, for so much is sheltered even by the lowest shore, but the rest is all more or less agitated and dark-blue  . . .   Ever and anon the wind seems to drop down from over the hill in strong puffs, and then spread and diffuse itself in dark fan shaped figures over the surface of the water. 

It is glorious 

to see how it sports on the 

watery surface.   

March 2, 1860

March 4. The earth is never lighter-colored than now . . . It contrasts finely with the rich blue of the water. March 4, 1860

March 5 It is a clear morning with some wind beginning to rise,

And for the first time

 I see the water looking 

blue on the meadows.  

March 5, 1854

 

March 8. The distant view of the open flooded Sudbury meadows, all dark blue, surrounded by a landscape of white snow, gave an impulse to the dormant sap in my veins. 

Dark-blue and angry

 waves, contrasting with the 

white winter landscape

 . . . The aspect of these waters at sunset, when the air is still, begins to be unspeakably soothing and promising. Waters are at length, and begin to reflect, and, instead of looking into the sky, I look into the placid reflecting water for the signs and promise of the morrow . . .  That dark-blue meadowy revelation. March 8, 1853

March 9. March began warm, and I admired the ripples made by the gusts on the dark-blue meadow flood, and the light-tawny color of the earth, and was on the alert to hear the first birds.  March 9, 1860 

March 11.   From the hill the river and meadow is about equally water and ice,

— rich blue water 

and islands or continents 

of white ice

— no longer ice in place — blown from this side or that. The distant mountains are all white with snow while our landscape is nearly bare. March 11, 1854

March 12.    A new feature is being added to the landscape, and that is expanses and reaches of blue water. This great expanse of deep-blue water, deeper than the sky, why does it not blue my soul as of yore? It is hard to soften me now. The time was when this great blue scene would have tinged my spirit more.  March 12, 1854 

March 14.   No sooner has the ice of Walden melted than the wind begins to play in dark ripples over the surface of the virgin water. Ice dissolved is the next moment as perfect water as if melted a million years. March 14, 1860 

March 16.  Look toward the sun, the water is yellow, as water in which the earth has just washed itself clean of its winter impurities; look from the sun and it is a beautiful dark blue; but in each direction the crests of the waves are white, and you cannot sail or row over this watery wilderness without sharing the excitement of this element. March 16, 1859

March 20. It is glorious to behold the life and joy of this ribbon of water sparkling in the sun. The wind . . .  raises a myriad brilliant sparkles on the bare face of the pond, an expression of glee, of youth, of spring, as if it spoke the joy of the fishes within it and of the sands on its shore. It is the contrast between life and death. There is the difference between winter and spring. The bared face of the pond sparkles with joy.  March 20, 1853 

*****

See also  A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Signs of the Spring:

• A Change in the Air
• A Sunny Nook in Spring
• Alder and Willow Catkins Expanding
• Braided Ripples of Melting Snow Shine in the Ruts
• Bright Blue Water
• Buzzing Flies
• Ducks Afar, Sailing on the Meadow
• Frogs, and Turtles Stirring
• Greening Grasses and Sedges
• I begin to think that my wood will last
• Insects and Worms Come Forth and are Active
• Listening for the Bluebird
• March is famous for its Winds
• Mosses Bright Green
• My Greatcoat on my Arm
• Perla-like Insects Appear
• Red Maple Sap Flows
• Ripples made by Fishes
• Skunks Active
• The Anxious Peep of the Early Robin
• The crowing of cocks, the cawing of crows
• The Days have grown Sensibly Longer
• The Eaves Begin to Run
• The Gobbling of Turkeys
• The Grackle Arrives
• The Hawks of March
• The New Warmth of the Sun
• The Note of the Dark-eyed Junco Going Northward
• The Red-Wing Arrives
• The Skunk Cabbage Blooms
• The Softened Air of these Warm February Days
• The Song Sparrow Sings
• The Spring Note of the Chickadee
• The Spring Note of the Nuthatch
• The Striped Squirrel Comes Out
• The Water Bug (Gyrinus)
• Walking without Gloves
• Woodpeckers Tapping

A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, Signs of the Spring: Bright Blue Water

A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau

 "A book, each page written in its own season,

out-of-doors, in its own locality."

 ~edited, assembled and rewritten by zphx ©  2009-2023

tinyurl.com/HDTbright